The Shadows
by PersianBlueAllium
Summary: An AU where Rapunzel still lives with Mother Gothel based on a headcannon of mine: Rapunzel has a high fever and begins to hallucinate and see a man in her room.


The ceiling. It was all she could make out as she stared up, forehead drenched with sweat. Yet she was shivering.

Pascal made a squeak next to her. Rapunzel rolled over and closed her eyes, reaching a hand out to pet him, but missing him. She gave up on the first try, not having the energy to continue. He nuzzled up to her, and she cleared her throat.

Her head hurt. Badly. And her fingers felt numb. What was happening? She was obviously sick, but how? Did she eat something..? Most likely; Mother had brought back a different herb to make soup with. But she hadn't gotten sick.

Did it matter at this moment why? Rapunzel brought her covers up above her head and indulged in the dark and solitude.

The door creaked open. "How are you feeling, flower? Can I get you anything?"

Rapunzel mumbled something practically inaudible to her own ears.

"Darling..."

She poked her head out of the blanket. "Water?" she whispered.

Gothel nodded her head and closed the door, heading back down the stairs.

She sighed, letting her arm fall over the side of the bed. Her eyes wouldn't shut this time, so she stared at the corner where her dresser and wall met. The shadows played in the crevice and she could almost hear them laughing like little children. Her lips curled into a smile, and she wanted to laugh with them.

Soon though, the little children began jumping one on top of the other, forming a bigger shadow. Still person like... but.. adult. Rapunzel's eyes squinted and her arm came up to lean on. Head pushed forward, she watched as the shadow grew arms, and a head... and slowly blinked open to blood red eyes.

Rapunzel sat up fast, the blanket falling off her shoulders and pooling around her waist. It's eyes were small compared to hers, and then it moved.

A step forward. A hand reached out. Rapunzel backed up as the shadow came to life and a man formed in front of her. Pascal squealed and skittered away. She was motionless however.

It smiled, hand still outstretched.

The darkness around it seem to disappear and she saw a man. Very tall, lean, the red eyes - like a demon's would be if they existed. His smile was crooked, and white hair fell over the corner of his right eye. It was shaggy, sticking out in pieces here and there; white little tufts of glowing inhuman hair.

He wore all black, white scratches going up and down his bare arms as if he had been in a fight, but the scars were fading. They had the same sort of glow as his hair.

His hand was still outstretched. Rapunzel's eyes darted back and forth between his fingers and his eyes.

His crooked grin turned into a full out smile. It was... stunning, to say the least. He cleared his throat. "_You can see me, can you not?_"

Her mouth opened to answer, but nothing came out. What was she supposed to say?

He let out a small chuckle, just barely audible, but it seemed to fill the silence of the room. "_I am Abaddon. But you may call me whatever you like. No one ever invokes my name unless they need something from me. Will you give me a second name?_"

Rapunzel's mouth still could not move to answer. She felt like she should say something, anything, but she could think of nothing.

Abaddon walked forward and stood at her bed. She tilted her head to look up at him. "_Would it help if I gave you a name to call me by?_" She nodded. He made a perplexed face at this and thought for a moment. "_You may call me Dimitri._"

Rapunzel nodded again, and Abaddon - Dimitri - smiled at this. He moved to sit on the bed and she sat up a bit, giving him space.

Dimitri put a hand on her leg and smiled still. "_Are you okay?_" he asked.

Rapunzel nodded, finding the will inside herself to answer his question. "Yes, I am okay."

"_That is good,_" he remarked. "_Most are too.. well, stunned, to answer anything I ask._"

I wonder why, she thought. "It's no surprise." Rapunzel swallowed past the lump in her throat. "Can I ask you how you got here? In my room?"

His smile disappeared, and Dimitri's expression blanked. "_I do not wish to tell you,_" he said softly.

Rapunzel suddenly wondered why Gothel was taking so long with her glass of water.

Dimitri's lack of enthusiasm went away and his original crooked grin came back in it's place. "_It's so hard, these human emotions. I never know if what I'm feeling is supposed to happen, or not._"

She decided to let it slide that he said **human emotions**. He obviously wasn't human. He was different, she could see it in every movement, every breath he took - then again, it didn't particularly look like Dimitri was breathing. She let that slide too. "Them what are you doing here?"

His eyes illuminated and looked brightly. "_You needed someone, company, and I wanted to give you it._" He touched a lock of his hair, taking a piece of hers in his other hand. "_You see, we are one and the same. You glow and heal, and I glow and wound._"

It felt as though Rapunzel's fever was suddenly gone. She could run a thousand miles and not be tired; she could stay up for days on end and never sleep. She felt.. renewed. Dimitri must have noticed her change because his grin grew wider again. The boy liked to smile, she observed.

"_Like yin and yang,_" he began. "_We are different, but we are alike. One cannot live without the other. You heal what I destroy._"

And suddenly, it was like everything she had lived for was gone. She didn't need to hide - Dimitri obviously lived outside of the tower and no one had slaughtered him for his powers at all. At least not yet, her mind tried to scold her. But she payed no attention to it. She had found someone who was like her, in almost every way possible. How could she possibly refuse?

Oh, she knew everything seemed to be going by quickly, but still, she didn't care.

After all, what was there to care about anymore?


End file.
